Forcing students to read too-difficult material drags them down. Tovani acknowledges that if she were asked to plow through a chemistry textbook, her reading level would be much lower than it would be reading a literature anthology. If students can’t read the textbook, she believes teachers should get them reading something else that they can read. This builds up their background knowledge, vocabulary, motivation, curiosity, and a sense of purpose. “The truth is that the best way to improve comprehension is to read,” she says. “Ironically, the kids who need to be reading the most have the fewest opportunities to do so.”
~ From Marshal Memo 327
“I Got Grouped” by Cris Tovani in Educational Leadership, March 2010 (Vol. 67, #6, p. 24-29), http://ascd.org
Strategies for Reading Text
Annotating a page – Photocopy a page, tape it to a larger piece of paper (or make a poster), and use the wide margins to jot notes on the choice of words, sentence patterns, images, dialogue, and effective devices.
Non-Fiction Reading
Forcing students to read too-difficult material drags them down. Tovani acknowledges that if she were asked to plow through a chemistry textbook, her reading level would be much lower than it would be reading a literature anthology. If students can’t read the textbook, she believes teachers should get them reading something else that they can read. This builds up their background knowledge, vocabulary, motivation, curiosity, and a sense of purpose. “The truth is that the best way to improve comprehension is to read,” she says. “Ironically, the kids who need to be reading the most have the fewest opportunities to do so.”
~ From Marshal Memo 327
“I Got Grouped” by Cris Tovani in Educational Leadership, March 2010 (Vol. 67, #6, p. 24-29), http://ascd.org
Strategies for Reading Text
Annotating a page – Photocopy a page, tape it to a larger piece of paper (or make a poster), and use the wide margins to jot notes on the choice of words, sentence patterns, images, dialogue, and effective devices.
High Interest Low Readability Passages
Social Studies
Science
Math
English
World Language
Business
Family & Consumer Science
Health/PE
Music/Art